New Romney ad attacks Obama on “gutting” welfare reform

posted at 9:21 am on August 7, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Team Romney moved to take advantage of another gift from Barack Obama — this one not so much a gaffe but a strange strategic move by Obama and his administration. A month ago, Obama removed the work requirements and limitations on welfare, one of the few successful bipartisan efforts from Washington in the last generation. Bill Clinton only reluctantly went along for the ride, but after agreeing to it, rushed to take credit for the reforms and continued to highlight it as part of his legacy after he left office. Obama unilaterally abandoned that reform, and Romney will start today to paint him as so extreme that he can’t even agree with Bill Clinton:

On the campaign trail beginning Tuesday in Illinois and in a new television advertisement, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee plans to argue that the Obama administration is turning the federal welfare program into “just a handout” with last month’s decision to allow waivers to states from welfare work requirements.

This is Romney’s latest attempt to cast Obama as a big-government liberal and to drive a wedge between the president and the popular legacy of one of his Democratic predecessors, President Clinton.

Team Obama objects to this criticism, noting that as governor of Massachusetts, Romney argued for waivers by state on enforcement. However, Romney argues that the waiver requests were intended to quantify the work requirement, not eliminate it altogether. They also remind the media in an accompanying press release that Obama has long been hostile to the welfare reforms of the 1990s:

In a memo to reporters, Romney campaign policy director Lanhee Chen tried to cast Obama as an advocate for “big-government liberalism.”

“Unfortunately, not everyone was enthusiastic about welfare reform,” Chen writes. “For instance, a man named Barack Obama took to the floor of the Illinois State Senate to announce his opposition. A devoted believer in old-school, big-government liberalism, Mr. Obama had no interest in embracing the welfare reform package that linked welfare to work. Now as president, with an economy struggling, an election looming, and a dispirited liberal base in need of encouragement, he has decided to turn back the clock.”

The question that should be asked is this: why didn’t Obama do this through Congress when he had strong Democratic majorities? Had this change taken place in the wake of the financial collapse, or perhaps in mid-2009 as joblessness soared over 10%, there may have been a lot of sympathy for at least a temporary waiver of the work requirements. After all, when Congress and Clinton passed welfare reform, unemployment was pretty low and jobs readily available. Instead, Obama acted unilaterally in the middle of an electoral campaign in which he’s struggling to bypass Congress and gut the bipartisan welfare reform he’s always opposed.

That gives Romney an easy opening for attack. Perhaps Team Romney will buy heavily for the coverage of the Democratic convention — and run this ad before and after Bill Clinton’s nominating speech in prime time.

Update:Here’s audio from a 1999 appearance by Barack Obama at Carleton College, declaring his opposition to Clinton’s welfare reform:

OBAMA: “That’s an excellent question. Let me take it sort of two fold. The first question which is fairly specific is about welfare reform. As most of you know I think, in 1996 the Republican Congress passed and President Clinton signed a welfare reform bill that essentially ended a 60 year entitlement to welfare. I was a strong proponent of some reform of the welfare system. I would not probably of supported the federal system. The federal bill that was passed.”

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Gee, does Obama support the freeloaders of America while tearing apart both the responsible producers and the structure that allows them to produce.
That’s the campaign theme I’d run with. You’ll never get the free-loader votes anyway.

Um, wouldn’t this be a feature-not a bug-to many people, unfortunately? Hey, I don’t have to work for my welfare anymore…yeah Obama! I think this particular move ought to be wrapped into an ad that focuses on all his power grabs and executive orders.

OF?
Is there an error in the transcription or is it by the speaker? It is have, not of. It’s basic grammar. If Columbia and Harvard (and Hawaiian prep school) can’t teach you that, you aren’t uneducated, you are stupid. Stupidest president ever.

OBAMA: “That’s an excellent question. Let me take it sort of two fold. The first question which is fairly specific is about welfare reform. As most of you know I think, in 1996 the Republican Congress passed and President Clinton signed a welfare reform bill that essentially ended a 60 year entitlement to welfare. I was a strong proponent of some reform of the welfare system. I would not probably of supported the federal system. The federal bill that was passed.”

Where did anyone get the idea that Obama was a skilled orator? His speech patterns sound a lot like Pelosi, who sounds like a drunk.

Is there some reason Fast & Furious, EP, ignoring Court orders regarding drilling, etc. are off the table? Maybe that stuff is for later, but there are so many things to use to go after Obama.

Really? Blaming welfare recipients for the economic crisis? Is this all the GOP has? My confidence grows everyday.

libfreeordie on August 7, 2012 at 9:40 AM

You REALLY think that large numbers of people who choose not to work, but instead live off the incomes of people who do, helps our economy? Is this more liberal math? They spend the money they are given which stimulates the economy!

President Clinton signed a welfare reform bill that essentially ended a 60 year entitlement to welfare.

The ad’s literally write themselves when this man speaks. Romney, Rove, etc… better have piles of ads ready to go in September.

Just show the average person that works hard everyday that Obama wants to do nothing but tax them to death so that he can give hand-out’s to his “middle class” and increase the salaries and pensions of public employees, and no sane person would want to vote for him.

In light of news about David Plouffe taking money from a company working with the Iranian government and the new scandal that broke today involving the boy king’s administration, so is mine you hypocritical lying coward, so is mine.

Any sane electorate should vote the Democrats out in a landslide; however, it seems to me sanity is a scarce commodity in much of our nation.

Californians keep putting union puppets in their state legislature and Nancy Pelosi in Congress. Illinois keeps voting in criminals. Massachusetts may elect Elizabeth Warren, a liar and a socialist. Nevada keeps voting in the lawless and despicable Harry Reid who’s kept the Senate from passing a budget in 4 years.

I hope the Romney campaign and the RNC get it in high gear immediately, or November 6, 2012 may get here too soon.

[Obama:] “I was a strong proponent of some reform of the welfare system. I would not probably of supported the federal system. The federal bill that was passed.”
What does this mean?

Steve Z on August 7, 2012 at 9:36 AM

I think what our ever-so-intelligent-and-articulate president was trying to say is that he supported welfare reform, but not the specific type of reform that required welfare recipients to actually work or look for work.

Barry’s idea of “reform” probably would have been to give welfare recipients bigger checks every month, or to loosen the minimum requirements — such as removing the “Are you a U.S. citizen or legal resident?” question from the welfare application form, so that illegal aliens could qualify for welfare payments without having to go to the trouble of buying fake ID first.

Good catch! There will be A LOT of democrats pretending they’re not in November. I cannot even tell you how many people I know who voted for Obama who now say, “Obama? Oh, hell no. I never voted for the guy!” Gives me a good laugh.

And on that note, my young adult kids and I have a little fun with our own little election-year psy-ops when we’re out and about in our very liberal town. When we’re in a crowded store:

Kid will say: I’m so ashamed I wasted my first vote ever on Barack Obama! It just embarrasses me so much. My friends and I always lie now and say we just didn’t vote.

Kid: I know, but gosh. He turned out to be sooooo sleazy, like that Nixon guy we studied in AP history.

Me: Well, you can vote him out this time around.

Kid: I know. My friends at college and I cannot wait to do that! I don’t know anyone who supports him anymore.

Of course, the Kid didn’t vote for Barack, but you should see the looks on the faces of the precious O-bots around us. They just want to cry. And maybe, just maybe, a few of them will see that it’s OK to admit the error of their ways!

Obama is breaking every law and rule he feels like breaking. Spending money we don’t have. No longer deporting illegal aliens. Overregulating energy. And now he’s unilaterally dismantling welfare reform? How can he do that, just because he feels like it? When a Prez can do what he feels like, and rules and laws don’t matter, then we become ruled by men, not laws. Some people are favored, and others not, on a whim of a person. Outcome is then based on who you know, not on what is right. We become like a third world country.

The ad — finally a sober, quiet, truthful ad. No ominous music, no demagoguing, no attacking someone’s personal wealth, no personal references at all. Just plain facts, so people can decide if they want to support welfare, or welfare to work. Your choice.

Welfare enslaves people’s minds and lives. I don’t know why most liberal people can’t see that. It has completely devastated the African-American community since LBJ. I guess people are content to live as sheep under Big Govt.
Maybe being raised to work has clouded my mind.

Welfare enslaves people’s minds and lives. I don’t know why most liberal people can’t see that. It has completely devastated the African-American community since LBJ. I guess people are content to live as sheep under Big Govt.
Maybe being raised to work has clouded my mind.

RadioAngel on August 7, 2012 at 11:01 AM

RA it is a feature not a bug of the trap they designed.

LBJ makes Tammany Hall look like a glee club in history…..

they hate the US’ influence in the world so they undermine our economic engine….

they hate Capitalism so they burden it with more and more dead weight in the cart

they pay the poor just enough so they can have a few toys but cut off aid the minute they start to steer their own boat rather than ride in the welfare barge…..

Decent people want to work and grow, mocchers want to eat the seedcorn.

The ’96 welfare reform did more to lift people out of poverty than any other social program reform. I can see how you might have a problem with that. The work requirement, um, worked. So did limited benefits to people. The safety net isn’t a hammock.

About this ad.. there’s something tame, temperate, and this is consistent with the idea that Romney wants to be Mr Temperate and reasonable on all issues, Mr. Find the Center that Offends No One. Unfortunately, with his failure to support Chick Fil A he offended certainly more than half the conservative base. But if you “play to the middle” in an etch a sketch “median voter theory” fashion, offending the base isn’t an issue.
Back to the ad. It’s not making the point in an emotional way that is going to get people really upset (and thus win votes). It’s kind of sterile matter of fact, educating the voter, but that’s what the news is for.
And O’s gutting of welfare reform is now down near the bottom of the list of the major transgressions of Obama, I would think. Stick first to attacking O for the out of control govt spending, and, frankly, to attract Dem leaning independents, go after O for his unlimited support of gay marriage and the (perverse) new morality. These are now much much bigger issues. Welfare reform is yesterday’s news in comparison to immigration, O’s war on energy, etc etc. Well, if you are going to cover welfare in an ad, make it emotional and effective, not dry and pointless.

It is my understanding that no Executive Order, can be contrary to existing law. Obama’s waiver on Welfare work requirements negates much of the welfare reform legislation passed in 1996 under Clinton. In this case can’t Obama be charged with Contempt of Congress?

It is my understanding that no Executive Order, can be contrary to existing law. Obama’s waiver on Welfare work requirements negates much of the welfare reform legislation passed in 1996 under Clinton. In this case can’t Obama be charged with Contempt of Congress?

Your problem, libfreeordie, is that you don’t see a single thing wrong with any of that. Indeed, as a gay black person, you think the government should be paying you double welfare checks at straight whitey’s expense and that you shouldn’t have to work at all.

And that’s what Obama promises you, which is why you are stuck like a remora to his rear.

You REALLY think that large numbers of people who choose not to work, but instead live off the incomes of people who do, helps our economy? Is this more liberal math? They spend the money they are given which stimulates the economy!